Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on encouraging total public and private sector spending of three per cent of gross domestic product on research and development.

This Government has set out its vision to meet R&D investment of 2.4% of GDP within ten years and 3% in the longer-term. Going forward, this ambition will be an important part of our Industrial Strategy and will require a concerted cross-government approach.

We have already increased research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. This equates to an extra £2 billion per year by 2020-21 and is an increase of around 20% to total government R&D spending, more than any increase in any parliament since 1979.

The new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), announced in November 2016, will back priority technologies where the UK has the potential to turn research strengths into a global industrial and commercial lead. The first wave of ISCF investment will be spent across six key challenges over the next 4 years and a variety of underpinning investments, driving progress in areas in which will support the industrial strategy. The ISCF is a UK wide fund for researchers and businesses across the UK.